Washington DC Baseball

GeoPoto · #1 03-10-2023, 04:06 AM

Great card Val -- I wonder how many cards use the position description "utility man"?

Player #110: Thomas L. "Tommy" Taylor. Third baseman for the Washington Senators in 1924. 19 hits in 77 plate appearances during the 1924 season, his only year in MLB. 1924 World Series champion.

Taylor played for the Washington Senators in 1924, primarily as a third baseman. He played in 26 games in his one-year career. He had a .260 batting average, with 19 hits in 73 at-bats. He batted and threw right-handed.

Taylor was a member of the 1924 World Series championship team.

We will now enjoy a brief pause. Expected date for next post: 13 March.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1678442713

ValKehl · #2 03-10-2023, 01:31 PM

Clark Griffith acquired Tommy Taylor in June 1924 via a trade with Memphis, and in December 1924, Taylor was traded back to Memphis. He appeared in 3 games of the 1924 WS, and struck out in both of his at bats. Taylor did accumulate almost 1,700 hits over his 16-year minor league career, which concluded in 1935 with Greenville of the East Dixie League at age 42. As far as I have been able to determine, no cards of Taylor were issued during his playing career.

GeoPoto · #3 03-13-2023, 04:09 AM

First in War, first in Peace, and now first in the American League, the Senators were honored with a victory parade when they got back to the capital -- open cars, police escort up Pennsylvania Avenue . . . the whole nine yards. The end of the line was the White House, where the ballclub was welcomed by President Calvin Coolidge, who promised to be on hand for the first game of the World Series at Griffith Stadium between the Senators and the New York Giants. The truth is that President Coolidge had absolutely no affinity with baseball -- he found the game a bore. Mrs. Coolidge, however, was a great fan of the game and just loved the Senators.

Three days later, on October 4, 1924, "Silent Cal" and his wife became the first President and First Lady to attend a Series opener. Secretary of State Charles Hughes, as well as the Secretary of War and the Speaker of the House were also in place in the presidential box. The United States Army Band entertained during the pregame ceremonies, and a military guard paid homage to the colors. Political and military bigwigs of all stripes had shown up for the occasion. To top things off, Walter Johnson and Roger Peckinpaugh were awarded shiny new automobiles.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1678698488

ValKehl · #4 03-13-2023, 04:55 PM

George, I wonder how Bucky Harris felt about not also being awarded a shiny new automobile. Not only did the first-year player-manager lead the Senators to their first-ever pennant, but he and Peckinpaugh comprised one of the best, if not the best, Keystone Combos in the American League.

Has anyone ever seen another one of these?

icollectDCsports · #5 03-13-2023, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ValKehl

George, I wonder how Bucky Harris felt about not also being awarded a shiny new automobile. Not only did the first-year player-manager lead the Senators to their first-ever pennant, but he and Peckinpaugh comprised one of the best, if not the best, Keystone Combos in the American League.

Has anyone ever seen another one of these?

That is so cool.

ValKehl · #6 03-13-2023, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icollectDCsports

That is so cool.

Thanks! Here's how Carry's Ice Cream was delivered back in the day:

GeoPoto · #7 03-14-2023, 04:31 AM

I think Bucky was thrilled just to be the boy wonder. Johnson and Peckinpaugh were established national stars. The Carry's Ice Cream piece is unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. Thanks for the show.

A week before the World series, syndicated columnist and future American icon Will Rogers, who ranched about 40 miles from the Johnson family spread in Coffeyville, Kansas, wrote that if Walter Johnson had played for John McGraw's New York Giants all those years, he would have had to be incompetent to have lost even a single game. Johnson, Rogers declared, could be sure that he caried more good wishes than any man, let alone athlete, who'd ever entered any competition in the entire history of America. After a "diligent search" of 150 years, Rogers wrote, Washington had finally found an honest man.

Nonetheless, since Walter Johnson had waited this long for his first World Series, he now had a platform for exposure that the Series could not have provided previously. The world was changing at a pace like never before. The automobile was now affordable to most Americans -- the Ford Model T sold for $260 brand new. The first coast-to-coast airplane flight had taken place in 1923. By now, the radio receiver was commonplace in the average home. This World Series would be broadcast over the airwaves of WRC in Washington, which had opened as the city's first radio station that summer. The previous year the Series had been broadcast in its entirety for the first time by the team of Graham McNamee, who'd given up a professional singing career to become a radio announcer, and Grantland Rice. By the spring of 1925, all the Nats' road games would be broadcast on station WRC.

Two days before the Series began, Walter Johnson and Bucky Harris both spoke into a radio microphone for the first time. The gratitude they expressed to their fans across the country, and their promise of a World Championship victory, were broadcast across the nation over the NBC network. Western Union had strung 75,000 miles of cable to scoreboards in cities across the U.S., and wire services were available in approximately 200 other locations.

Nats fans wait in line for 1924 World Series tickets:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1678786064

Hankphenom · #8 03-15-2023, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ValKehl

George, I wonder how Bucky Harris felt about not also being awarded a shiny new automobile. Not only did the first-year player-manager lead the Senators to their first-ever pennant, but he and Peckinpaugh comprised one of the best, if not the best, Keystone Combos in the American League. Has anyone ever seen another one of these?

Not me. The great memorabilia dealer Bob McCann unearthed this a couple of decades ago, sold it to me at a National, if memory serves correctly, then some time later it found the perfect home in your collection. One of the few items I've had I would put in the category of "condition irrelevant."

GeoPoto · #9 03-16-2023, 04:07 AM

Umpire Billy Evans was of the opinion that at one time Walter Johnson could have won a World Series by himself, reasoning that a team from another league would not have had time, in one week, to adjust to Walter's legendary blazing fastball. However, when Evans came into the clubhouse prior to the start of the first game to get some baseballs autographed for friends, it was obvious to him that Walter Johnson, arguably the greatest pitcher in history, was very nervous. It had taken him 18 years to make it this far, the longest wait ever, incidentally, until Joe Niekro made it after 21 years, with the Minnesota Twins in 1987.

Walter Johnson admitted to Babe Ruth on the morning of the opener that he could hardly avoid the jitters, considering that everyone was expecting him to come through, everyone right up to and including the President of the United States. The first game, incidentally, would be only the second World Series game witnessed by the chief executive, President Wilson having been privy to the proceedings at a game in Philadelphia back in 1915.

Another sidebar to the 1924 World Series was the patching up of the strained relationship between two baseball legends, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. Cobb had recently been quoted as saying that he had gotten a real kick out of seeing the almighty Yankees fall to the Senators. The Babe had sarcastically commented to the press that Cobb, who would be doing some newspaper reporting of the Series, was probably also coming to Washington to collect some of the gate receipts as well, considering the impact he had had on deciding the pennant. Christy Walsh, ghostwriter for many a baseball star who purportedly analyzed ballgames but were in fact nowhere near the ballpark, somehow tricked Ruth and Cobb into the same cab. The two made up, acting like best buddies as they watched the proceedings from the press box throughout the week of the World Series.

While the Senators' first Series participation grabbed all the headlines, the Giants had been getting more than their share of ink. As their lead over Brooklyn dwindled in the late stages of the season, it had been alleged that Jimmy O'Connell, a spare outfielder with the Giants, had offered Philadelphia's shortstop, Heinie Sand, a sum of $500 if Sand would agree not to bear down too hard. When Sand reported the incident to his manager, Art Fletcher, the matter was brought to the attention of Commissioner Landis. The bribery plot was traced back to Giants coach Cozy Dolan, and both Dolan and O'Connell were eventually forever banned from organized baseball as a result. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Clark Griffith inspects progress adding bleachers to Griffith Stadium in advance of hosting the 1924 World Series:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1678957429

ValKehl · #10 03-16-2023, 09:53 AM

"Nevertheless, oddsmakers were calling it pretty much a toss-up, and the Nats were favored to take the first game, what with Bucky Harris having promised to start Walter Johnson."

George, I assume to only reason the oddsmakers considered the 1024 WS a toss-up is that they assumed that Walter would win at least 2 games. Had the oddsmakers known that Johnson would lose his two starts, I assume the Giants would have been prohibitive favorites.

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